All was quiet....

A couple nights ago, I came out of the Kitchen to quiet. In our house, that usually isn't a good thing. I walked down the hall towards the bedrooms, and peeked into Matthew's room.... This is what I saw. Jake, Matthew and Andrew were laying in Matthew's bed, reading. Jake was reading aloud, Andrew was pretending to read a novel, and Matthew was sound asleep. I thought the moment was too cute not to preserve it.

I absolutely love my boys :)

Annual Pumpkin Patch Trip

Every year there are certain things we look forward to doing as a family. One of them is our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. We've gone every year since Matthew as born, and I look forward to it immensely. This year we picked a dry (thank goodness) day, so the mud wasn't too bad. The kids weren't too excited about being photographed, but we tried. I thought I would share some of my favorite pictures...

It took a lot of work to get this picture. The boys refused to cooperate and the sun was in their eyes... But I still love it.

I love that as time goes on, the boys have gotten to enjoy being around each other. I'm sure they were plotting to figure out how they could take this pumpkin home with them, but still... I love their friendship.

Matthew on his way to find the "Perfect Pumpkin".

And here it is!!!! He is getting so big and strong. It cracks me up!

Emmy and Auntie were trying to talk Andrew into leaving the "little pumpkins" and venture into the field to pick out big pumpkins.

But he really liked the little ones! :)

I absolutely love this picture of Andrew. He is such a sweet and loving little boy (except when he growls).

Happy Halloween everyone!!!!

Matthew's 5th Birthday Party

This past weekend we celebrated Matthew's 5th birthday (his actual birthday is this Thursday). We had family and friends at our house and then everyone went rolling skating (well, actually there were only a few daring adults who put on roller skates... I was not one of them). It was an absolute blast!!!! The kids had a great time, and the adults enjoyed themselves laughing. It was so much fun! I can't wait to take the kids again...

I thought I would share a couple of pictures from the party...

Andrew and Emmy (my mom) taking to the rink

My uncle Bob and my cousin Ali's little girl Audrey (Matthew's "cousin")

Matthew's "Spiderman" cake. I have always been big into making the birthday cakes. But this year Matthew really wanted a "Spiderman" Cake, so we enlisted in some professional help.

Matthew and Andrew devouring the cake.

Andrew ended up with way more cake on his face and hands then what went into his mouth. What a mess!!!!

My all time favorite picture. Andrew absolutely LOVED skating. He skated for a good two hours. Let's just say he slept REALLY well that night!!!

We had such a good time. Thanks to everyone who made it out to his party. It was a birthday party we will never forget!!

Matthew's 5th Birthday

Happy 5th Birthday Matthew!!!!

Our big boy turns 5 today! It seems so hard to believe that 5 years have gone by... To think we weren't sure we would ever be able to have kids... Now two little ones later, life couldn't be more perfect.

Matthew has grown into a wonderful, loving boy. I am so proud of the person he is becoming and have great hopes for his future. He is kind (well, sometimes he and his brother like to argue), loving, incredibly smart, and most of all happy. We are so truly blessed that Matthew is ours.

I thought I would take a minute to show Matthew through the years. It's hard to believe how much he has grown.

This is Matthew's "Birth Day" with my dad. This is one of my favorite pictures. I was so blessed that my dad was able to be a part of Matthews life for his first 1 and 1/2 years . I only wish he could be here to see Matthew now...

Matthew with his first birthday cake... Seem's like so long ago.

Matthew meeting his baby brother for the first time.

And Matthew now (well underwater). He loves to be a clown!!!

We are so very lucky to have this wonderful child in our life!! Happy Birthday Matthew!!!

Animals, animals, and more animals

These days, our house seems to buzz with animals (maybe bark or meow would be more appropriate). We have two dogs (Gus and Molly, though Gus isn't ours, he just lives with us, go figure), two cats (Max and Sebastian--we had to have Sam put to sleep in December), and, a couple of weeks ago, we added Rhino the hamster (thank you to the movie Bolt).

I love that the boys are surrounded by animals. Jake and I are both huge animal lovers, and we want to impart that on our kids. I just wish the house were bigger to accomodate all the animals (and all the fur).

In honor of the newest member of the family (Rhino) I thought I would post some recent pics of the animals...

This is Matthew's cat Sebastian (this picture is when he was but an itty-bitty kitty)

This is Sebastian now (he is an absolutely beautiful cat, and about the sweetest and most loveable that we have ever met!)

This is Sebastian when he isn't being his best (this is a bread basket, on the KITCHEN COUNTER--thank goodness the bread is gone!)

This is Andrew trying his best to convince Sebastian that his crib is a good place for both of them to sleep. Sebastian has yet to be convinced.

This is the newest addition to the Scott Family; Rhino (aka Matthew's hamster). I'm not sure how many animals we'll end up with once Andrew figures out he can ask for an animal too...

Rhino LOVES running in his wheel. But somehow (I know, I should have known) I didn't realize that hamsters are nocturnal.

And, just in case there aren't enough animals inside, we (Matthew, Andrew, Mommy and Sebastian--who didn't quite make the picture) spend our time watching (and feeding) the squirrels on the deck.

Time to play catch up...

It has been a month and a half since our last blog entry. I would blame it on life being busy, but everyone's life is busy (especially those with 4 kids :). But I thought I would take a minute to put some pictures up of the activities around the Scott household over the last 2 months.

They have been a busy 2 months. We had Christmas (and all that went along with Christmas), snow, floods, Andrew's baptism, lots of time spent with family and friends, and last but not least, the addition to our family of another animal....

Let's start with the Christmas tree.... Every year we have a family tradition of going to a local tree farm and cutting down our own tree. The boys (especially Matthew) love it. Last year we were fortunate enough to have snow while we were tree hunting, this year, in typical Seattle fashion, it was raining.

Matthew and Jake with the perfect tree (well, Matthew thought so!)

Sarah, Matthew and Andrew (the boys look all too thrilled!)

Matthew decorating the tree (we didn't have ornaments on the bottom half--thank you Andrew)

Gingerbread houses:

Once again, we had the wonderful opportunity to go to Jen (my sister's best friends) house for their annual gingerbread house party. This year was even more fun then last year, as there was a house full of kids. We had so much fun making the houses. Matthew really got into it this year, as did most of the kids his age. We had an absolute blast. It is truly one of our favorite parts of the holidays!!

Matthew waiting for some direction (I might have been a little bit too precise with my directions).
We're getting there.....

A few of the houses didn't withstand all the candy and collapsed (ours did on the car ride home)

Matthew's finished product (after it collapsed, we had to go buy another kit and do another one... This time it lasted until after Christmas).

SNOW!!!!!!

We finally got some of the white stuff in Seattle! Now, most weather forecasters, and citizens of Seattle in general, were not too happy with the snow. Being a mom of two little boys (and having spent 7 years in Ellensburg) I can't get enough of it! We had so much fun. Matthew would spend hours in it if we let him. Andrew, on the other hand, liked to watch it from the inside. We would spend 15 minutes getting him all bundled up, he would walk outside, be waist deep in the snow, turn around and come in. It was all a little much for him! It lasted for about a week (which seemed like a record for our area) and we were sad to see it go. We've had a few snow flurries since then, but nothing major... Here's hoping (at least at our house) for more snow!

This may not look like alot (for our friends in the midwest) but for Seattle, it was quite a bit. This isn't even the total amount... This was just one night!

Andrew all bundled up and kind-of enjoying the snow!

The boys on the sled. It was the only way Andrew really enjoyed the snow. Matthew insisted on wearing a full face hat and goggles... It kind of looked like he was in Alaska!

Overall, the last two months have been great. We had a wonderful Christmas (though Andrew was terrified of Santa--and I mean terrified) surrounded by our family and friends. We got to spend some quality time with our good friends visiting from Alaska (and finally had Andrew baptized, because they were visiting). We always try and take time during this time of year to thank God for all that he has blessed us with. We feel extremely fortunate and blessed in our life and couldn't ask for more. We are so lucky!

~Oh and for all of you who were praying for Jake with his job search, it was successful. On December 12th, he started his new job with the UW. It is a dream position for him, and he is loving every minute of it. The lucky thing for us (especially given this economy) is that he was only out of work for 6 weeks. We were VERY lucky!

Ramen, Ramen and More Ramen

Despite our best efforts, Andrew is a picky eater. He eats fruits, meats and not much else. He will sometimes eat crackers, but never pasta or bread. So, imagine our surprise when we discovered that he LOVES top ramen. It is not the most nutritious food that he could eat, but we were pleased that he is branching out. We tried other long stringy noodles, which he puts in his mouth and promptly spits out and then hands us his plate and says "done".

Obviously, table manners will be the next thing we work on :)